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September 28th Cryptoparty – Mesh Networks and CJDNS

crypto-party

Join us for a Cryptoparty on Saturday September 28th, 2:00 – 4:00 pm, at the South End Tech Center, 359 Columbus Avenue in Boston. We’ll focus on Mesh Networks in general, and on CJDNS in particular.  We will also have key signing.

Have you heard of a mesh network? Mother Jones reports on a mesh net in Athens:

It’s actually faster than the Net we pay for: Data travels through the mesh at no less than 14 megabits a second, and up to 150 Mbs a second, about 30 times faster than the commercial pipeline I get at home. (They) can send messages, video chat, and trade huge files without ever appearing on the regular internet. And it’s a pretty big group of people: Their Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network has more than 1,000 members, from Athens proper to nearby islands. Anyone can join for free by installing some equipment. “It’s like a whole other web […] [i]t’s our network, but it’s also a playground.”

Imagine, no telecom bill, no NSA spying on your online activity. Heck, don’t just imagine it, do it! What the Greeks have built out of necessity, we can do to free ourselves of centralized monopolies.

Our afternoon of mesh networking will come with a special bonus — we’ll be joined by Caleb James DeLisle, the “CJD” in “CJDNS”. Caleb will speak about various threat motives behind network attacks, common methods used to attack networks, the specific challenges to mesh networking and the defenses which cjdns brings to bear on the problem. We’re planning on a 30 minute talk, followed by Q & A, and a hands-on networking workshop. Of course, there will be key signing, too. It’s a great opportunity to get your hands dirty with the technology!

This is a free workshop, but contributions to the South End Tech Center would be sincerely appreciated.  If you are interested in participating, just show up or contact William Fleurant (@wfleurant / williamfleurant@comcast.net) or Steve Revilak (@Purple_Bandanna / steve@srevilak.net). You can also signup at our Facebook event.  Hope to see you Saturday the 28th!

Please Spread the Word: Tell your friends or put up a poster in your community or campus.  (PNG, print full, half, or 1/4 page).  RSVP and share our Facebook event. Tweet us up.

Can’t make it on the 28th? Don’t worry, we’re doing another Cryptoparty at the Digital Media Conference, October 25-27th at Lesley University.

Think we are too Boston centered?  So do we!  Find us a place outside of greater Boston and we will be happy to schedule our next Cryptoparty there.  Email us at info@masspirates.org, or make a comment below.

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3 comments on “September 28th Cryptoparty – Mesh Networks and CJDNS

  1. Rather unsatisfying 2 hours. I was left very confused. The first
    presenter was not good. He was all over the map. The second guy was a
    better presenter. He had that whole mad scientist thing going. But I
    don’t feel like I was given any context. And I am not sure if I know the
    most basic details about cjdns or meshnetworking. One guy keep asking the
    same question, and I don’t know if it ever got answered. “How would
    someone on the internet get to his meshnetwork.”

    > Imagine, no telecom bill, no NSA spying on your online activity.

    The problem with that quote is that you are NOT online. You are on a
    private network with 25 other people. If I understand anything from the
    meeting.

    I was hoping for the keysigning also, but that never happened.

    I will checkout the meeting next month (even if I am the only one not
    running linux on their laptop).

  2. Alex,

    Thanks for taking the time to write. I’m sorry to hear that you left Saturday’s Cryptoparty feeling less than satisfied. Saturday’s agenda turned out to be more or less the reverse of what we originally planned. The second presenter was scheduled to go on first. Presenter number two was (AFAIK) delayed in transit, and presenter one did his best to step in and talk about CJDNS. We’ll try our best to take such mishaps into consideration when planning future cryptoparties.

    Regarding “no telecom bill, no NSA spying”, point taken. That sentence was intended as a nod of admiration to what the folks in Athens have done (see the Mother Jones article referenced earlier in the post). If you have a critical mass of people on a mesh net—over a thousand in their case—and they start running services, then you can start to provide alternatives to the corporate net. Plus, we think it’s really great to see people coming together and building things like this. You do need points of egress to reach the rest of the internet, but not every mesh node has to be a point of egress.

    Anyway, thanks again for the feedback, and we’ll see you at the next cryptoparty.

  3. “If you have a critical mass of people on a mesh net…” If we build it, they will come. We hope you will hang in there with us, Alex. Thanks for getting out to our event.

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